


Mr Not A Puppy

by Faltering_Light



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-11-06 16:15:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17943017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faltering_Light/pseuds/Faltering_Light
Summary: Jim finds a cat loose in the hall of his dorm during break





	Mr Not A Puppy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GoingKnowhere](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoingKnowhere/gifts).



> This is for GoingKnowhere's Divine Me a Masterpiece challenge, where we chose a Major Arcana tarot card, a ship or character, and a prompt off their list.
> 
> Card: The Star [interpretation & relevance here in the end notes]  
> Ship: McKirk  
> Prompt: #28 - I have a soft spot for cats so I always feed the fat one that’s always hanging out in the hall with treats and now it started hanging around me fuck I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to accidentally steal your pet

He wasn’t going to give in. He wasn’t. Cats probably shouldn’t even have toast, right? Right. Obligate carnivores. He knew that. So he wasn’t going to feed this one, no matter how much it was mewing pitifully at him and kneading the carpet, blocking his path while giving him a pathetic pleading look. And what the hell, it was _puppy_ eyes for a reason! Cats shouldn’t be able to do that!

“Okay, fine. You are absolutely a little liar, you look like a fluffy bowling ball! But here.” He dropped the preserve-covered corner piece on the floor when it was looking like the cat wasn’t quite sure if it was edible or not. He’d slipped the mousers back around Riverside enough weird treats to know that the weird huffy thing it was doing with its mouth didn’t mean it wouldn’t probably eat it after he walked away, even though it looked kind of disgusted.

“Okay, you enjoy that, and hopefully your owner will give you a real meal when they get back, alright? Hopefully I won’t see you again, little guy, I don’t think you’re supposed to be in the hallway. Don’t let the RA catch you!” He laughed as he walked backwards in the name of watching for at least a few more seconds before he reached the door to the stairwell, half enjoying watching the fluffball check out the toast and half making sure it stayed inside the hall- whoever it belonged to would probably be pretty upset to get back to their dorm and find their cat really _missing_ instead of having just slipped out into the hall.

 

* * *

 

“What the hell.”

“Mrow.”

“It’s four in the morning! Why are you still here?”

“Mrooow.” The cat arched its back and started kneading the carpet, the full length of its tail flicking lazily.

He grumbled not quite under his breath as he let himself into his room, reappearing several minutes later with a bowl of raw, synthesized whitefish and a towel. One ill-considered hard drop to his knees and a bit of groaning later, the towel was folded... kind of... and the bowl was settled as close as it could get without being on top of it. He addressed the cat again after moving a few feet away and laying down, chin propped on folded arms. “Okay. So, Mr Cat, I am very, very drunk.”

“Mrow?”

He was immediately indignantly distracted from his original train of thought by that reaction. “Hey! Don’t judge me, what else is there to do around here on break?”

“Mrow.”

“Nah, see, everyone else went home. I bet that’s why you’re still out here in the hall, huh? Did your owner accidentally let you slip out on their way to the station or something?” Most people hired pet sitters these days, but if you were only going to be away for two or three days it still wasn’t completely unheard of to leave an extra litter box out and a timed feeder and a big bowl of water or one of those perpetual watering things. “Still kind of messed up though, leaving part of the family behind on the holidays.”

“Mrooow.” The cat stretched and got up, taking an arcing path away from him to get to the bowl and towel.

He stuck his tongue out. “Not my fault I’m still here too, where the hell would I even go? Back to Riverside?” He pulled a face and then snickered, comparing it to the huffy face the cat had made at his toast before the night’s bar-hopping adventure. 

He drifted for a few moments as he idly watched the cat investigate his offering, only to give a more full laugh when it dug in and started purring. Loudly. “Holy shit! How did I not know someone had a cat up here! There’s no way I wouldn’t have noticed _that_! I’ve heard quieter _combines_ , what the fuck!” 

It was probably a good sign about the cat’s relationship with its owner and humanoids in general that it just looked over at him and otherwise ignored him instead of startling or hissing or something. His thoughts turned to who that might be- there were mostly humans on this floor, both Terran and from various colonies, with a few other species mixed in. Housing was pretty much the only place Starfleet went easy on first year Cadets, the floors in their building were sealed off individually and adjusted to various temperatures matching key Federation planets in accordance with the years’ intake averages. No one was stuck sleeping with more than a five degree variance from their Starfleet-approved Species Normal.

That changed in later years, of course, most species that could adapt being expected to do so unless they had a medical exemption. They were moved to join the members of species that literally couldn’t adapt regardless, the ones that were assigned a room over in the dorms for Med track Cadets from the get-go, where each room could be adjusted individually.

 _Jerks_.

Yeah, yeah, some species had really specific requirements for extreme temps and not-so-Terran-friendly humidity levels, and Med track specifically got a little bit of coddling because _them_ getting sick or dealing with months of adjustment could literally mean life or death with their more hands-on courses, but _still_.

Plus, Medical technically probably wouldn’t ever leave their ships anyway. It made sense for people that had a higher probability of ending up on away teams to have to get used to dealing with weird environments. That really wouldn’t help him figure out who owned the cat though, it would be a lot easier if he was in literally any other dorm where there probably would have been at least a few people he could automatically reject just for not being compatible with Terran felines...

Right, fuck, cat! His gaze snapped back to where the cat should reasonably still be, and he gave a huge sigh of relief when it proved to be curled up on the towel. “Shit, it’s not like you can go anywhere anyway... Doors are all closed.”

It purred even louder, blinking slowly at him.

“Glad you liked the fish, at least.” He interrupted himself with a jaw-cracking yawn, settling his head back on his arms before he continued. “I’m not going to go slipping notes under every door on this floor, so we’ll just leave a few posters up in the morning, hm? And you can just stay with me until your owner comes and gets you, how does that sound? We’ll go inside in a few minutes... Just don’t want to try to move yet, hm? Should’ve gotten _me_ a snack when I got your food...”

“Mrow.”

He laughed and let his eyes slip shut, stretching out a bit to get as comfortable as he could on the floor. “Carpet’s not half bad... Least ‘s not tile... Hate tile floors. They’re always so damn cold... Give me, like, five minutes and we’ll go, and I can show you where the couch is. Bet you’ll like that more than that old towel...”

 

* * *

 

He groaned when his communicator went off, blindly reaching for the nightstand only to freeze when he felt several sharp pricks on his back. He slowly looked back over his shoulder- half because that probably wasn’t anything good and half because he’d apparently left the light on like an idiot and that shit _hurt_ \- “Oh. Hi, cat.” 

Cat on his back. Bright as fuck lights. Carpet under his hand instead of his communicator. Mouth tasted like something had crawled in it, puked, and then died. “...Hallway isn’t the worst place I’ve passed out. Okay. Cool. Great.” He swore when his communicator dinged to indicate a voice message receipt and yanked it out of his pocket, hitting the redial key instead of checking it.

“Jim! What the hell took you so long? Aren’t you usually glued to that thing?”

“Bones!” He shot up and yelped as the cat dug into his back before jumping off and swatting at him for daring to disturb its rest.

“Damn it Jim, you’ve only been home for two days! What the hell did you do!”

“Uh. Nothing?” Falling asleep in the hallway notwithstanding, he’d done pretty good. It took him a few seconds for his brain to catch up with the whole complaint though, and he winced. “Uh... I kind of... Tripped? I guess?”

“In a pig’s eye, you did.”

“Look, Bones, I’m fine! I told you, there’s not really a way to get hurt in Riverside.” And thank any deity listening that Bones had apparently forgotten that he had just so happened to be bleeding everywhere when they met _in Riverside_... He was still a little worried about that, honestly, but no way in hell was he going to ask about why Bones had suddenly forgotten about, y’know, the _entire damn city_ he’d had to go to to hop the shuttle to join up here. He hadn’t thought he’d been that drunk, but maybe he just didn’t think it was worth remembering? Rude, honestly. “What am I gonna do, get in a fight with a corn stalk?”

“Well, knowing you, I wouldn’t really be _surprised_...”

He stuck his tongue out at the mic and made the mandatory accompanying sound.

“My God man, this is exactly why I say you’re a damn infant. I know what you’re doing, put your tongue back in your mouth!”

He laughed and held his hand to the cat, smiling even wider when it immediately forgave him for so horribly cruelly relieving it of its perch and started rubbing up against his hand and purring. “Yeah, yeah, on it. How’s Jo doing?”

Dead silence, and the call suddenly seemed more tense, somehow. “Bones?”

A sigh, and he could picture him rubbing his hand over his mouth and chin like he always did specifically when something went sideways with his ex-wife. “She’s probably pretty damn great right about now... Joss and her new boyfriend are taking her on one of those seven day Sol System tours, y’know, one of those ones that hangs in orbit around each of the planets for at least a few hours, and stops on each of the colonized planets, with one of those fancy as all hell packages with guided tours around the historical sites like first landings, where they recovered some of the old rovers, initial bases... I can’t even really complain, she was so excited to go.”

“Bones... Shit, you were supposed to have her all week...”

“Yeah. Yeah, I was.”

It was hard to find a reply to that, and hard to just sit there and pick at the hem of his jeans as he carefully pretended not to hear his friend trying to control his breathing on the other line. Nothing could bring on the waterworks for Bones faster than one Jocelyn Darnell doing something to keep one Joanna McCoy away from him _again_. Even harder when he could’ve been there for him just as soon as Jo had to leave. Since, y’know. He wasn’t _in_ Riverside. Oops? And he couldn’t even make a crack at Joss apparently having picked up another beau, or maybe something nasty about how she was at least showing a little bit of commitment to someone _finally_ , because Bones was infuriatingly insistent on taking the high road and not bad-mouthing her for her part in things even a little. Or letting him do so on his behalf. So, he tried for the ‘find a silver lining’ approach. “You at least got her all day yesterday, right...?”

“Yeah, kind of.” A rough laugh, more bitter than anything. “Joss wanted her in bed early so they could get going first thing in the morning, and wouldn’t hear a word about her spending the night here, even with me offering to meet them early at the ‘port. She picked her up at six.”

He winced again- that was well before he went out on his bar crawl, he definitely could’ve been there. “Hey, uh... You want me to come back up...? There’s not much to do down here anyway.”

“No, no, you stay there and have fun with your mom, alright? Hell, Jim, I just wanted to check in on you, and here I went dumping all this-”

“No. No, don’t start that shit.” He frowned, scritching behind the cats’ ears. “We’re friends, this is what friends are for. _You_ told me that, right?”

A sigh, and then a more genuine laugh. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. For once. You sure you’re doing alright, kid?”

He smiled at the shift to teasing, glad Bones was at least okay enough to get onto him about his infamous Bad Life Decisions. “I’m good. Promise.”

“Good. That’s good.” A brief pause, Bones probably trying to ground himself a little more again. “I’ll see you Sunday, then?”

“Yep! Last shuttle in, like I said.”

“Right. See you then, Jim.”

“See you, Bones!” He clicked the communicator shut and frowned for another few minutes before smiling down at the cat, carefully scooping it- screw it, him- up as he stood. “Okay, kitty cat, we’re gonna go get you fed, and me a shower, and one of those hangover hypos I talked Bones out of, and then we’re gonna go make his day, okay? And hopefully he won’t be too pissed at me for lying to him. Maybe. He’s gonna kick my ass, but it’ll be worth it. And we can avoid anything he asks about _my_ family problems! Except he definitely won’t do that. ...You think maybe giving him a few hints to yell about will be a good distraction from this shit with Jo?”

He continued chatting softly as he nudged the bowl and towel inside with his foot, closing the door and gently depositing his new roommate on the couch. “You know what? You’re a really good listener, little guy. If your owner doesn’t turn up, I think you’re just going to stay with me! I’ve always wanted a tortoiseshell, and you’re cuddly. Just no more clawing up my back, okay?”

“Mrow.”

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’.”

 

* * *

 

Leonard McCoy was many things, but a fool was not one of them. 

There was no way in hell that boy was really in Iowa.

He hadn’t been suspicious from the start, but it was close enough to count. Jim had gone pretty abruptly from clamming up right good every time his family was even hinted after to downright excited to see his Mom.

That in itself wasn’t that weird, but then there was the packing. Jim was downright ritualistic with his packing. Not with his actual luggage, no, the kid was just fine tearing off with nothing but the shirt on his back, but his road snacks? Lord have mercy, he never went anywhere more than a half-hour away without at least five pounds of non-perishables tucked about his person, but there were no sudden forays for MREs, no abrupt trips to the store for granola bars and jerky and freeze dried fruit, nothing suddenly missing from Leonard’s own cabinets with affirmations of “I’ll pay you back later, Bones!” or “Booones, you already have all the good stuff _right here_ , and the store is already closed!” regardless of most of San Francisco never closing overnight like less populated areas might.

Then, come Friday, the idiot straight-up forgot he needed to actually go to the station! That little shit had the gall to hop into a taxi after pulling an “Oh, shit! Thanks for reminding me, I lost track of time!” like he wouldn’t have been sitting there fidgeting glued to a clock if he was really due anywhere even half as important.

Add all that together with the lack of stories during the com call, and he wasn’t all that surprised to key in the code to Jim’s room to find the lights on, the room a bit humid, and sounds coming from the bathroom. Now, for the fun part. Sure, _he_ knew he wasn’t mad- hell, he was flat happy as all get-out that Jim was here, no one else was even close as good at lifting his mood for reasons he wasn’t looking at closely quite yet and wouldn’t for a long while if he could get away with it- but the point was, _Jim_ didn’t know he wasn’t pissed about all this. He took a deep breath, gearing up for it since the rest of the building was reasonably empty- there was no way he would get away with this if they weren’t on break.

“JAMES TIBERIUS KIRK!”

He snickered at the resulting yelp and clatter before making his way over to lean against the doorframe, flat-out laughing at Jim holding his towel up around his hips with one hand, the other pressed flat over his heart. “Bones!”

“Damn, kid, make up your mind as to if you’re scared or happy, would ya? You ought to go with the former. Riverside, _my ass_.”

He laughed again after a minute of watching him stutter and fumble his way into something approaching actual Standard, finally showing mercy- kind of- and reaching out to ruffle still-damp blond hair _hard_. Jim broke into a wide grin in response and dove forward, yanking him into a hug. “Damn it Jim, you’re still wet! Get off me!” He knew it was perfectly fine that his actions and his words didn’t match; Jim knew him well enough to not call him on him returning the hug despite his bitching and griping.

“Nope!” He danced back out of swatting range, smiling too damn wide for so early in the morning. “When did you figure out I was still here?”

“What kind of sucker do you take me for? I knew before you ‘left’, you idiot.”

“You did _not_.” No one did affronted looks better than Jim. That made it really easy to tell when he wasn’t actually affronted, like now- too much of a smile peeking out from that scowl.

“Did too. Now hurry up and finish primping so we can get breakfast, would you? Or did you have any real plans you’ve been hiding?”

“Nope, no plans! I was actually coming to surprise you, but since you’ve ruined that entirely, I guess we can skip straight to food. Now put that eyebrow down! And move so I can get clothes.”

“Will do, just as soon as you quit poking me.” He didn’t bother trying to move Jim’s hand from where the brat was trying to force the eyebrow in question to its resting position, just moved back into the living room. “Hurry up, will you?”

“You were the one taking forever to move, old man. Arthritis finally kicking in?” He stuck out his tongue and finally got moving, looking like nothing more than an overgrown puppy excited for a walk.

He took the time after the bedroom door slammed shut to throw together a plan to trick the little shit to the clinic first. Like hell had he forgotten about that yelp on the com earlier, and he knew Jim would do his damndest to keep him from figuring out what sort of mess he’d gotten himself into this time. It was a damn good thing the idiot _hadn’t_ actually gone off to Riverside, there’s no way in hell he’d’ve come back in one piece.

 

* * *

 

Jim pushed the door open without even looking at it and turned back to his bed, scooping up the giant fluffball who had apparently taken up residence there while he was in the shower. This was seriously one fat cat, he had to weigh at least eight kilos, but that didn’t make him any less adorable or fluffy. He crooned softly to him while scritching his ears. “You found a comfy spot, huh, little buddy. The bed is a lot better than the couch, isn’t it?”

“Jim. Please tell me you didn’t let me interrupt someone’s walk of shame.”

Oops. Bones sounded both disappointed and pissed, but that would be really easy to fix this time, at least. “Nope! This is so much better than that.” He made his way out to join him, making sure to hold the cat in a way that his attention would immediately be drawn to it. “Meet my new roommate! Temporary roommate, at least. I found this little guy out in the hall yesterday. I figure someone accidentally let him slip outside when they were leaving, I guess, because he was still out there- Bones?”

Bones kept that half surprised, half awed look that had made him interrupt himself as he stepped forward and took his face in his hands, yanking him into a very abrupt kiss.

That was not the reaction he was expecting, but he only tensed for a second before leaning into it. How could he not? Unfortunately, of course, the movement snapped Bones out of whatever had possessed him to kiss him in the first place. He carefully fixed a smile in place. “I guess he’s yours, then? If you got excited enough for...” Yeah, not like Bones would kiss him just because. Even if he wanted him to. A lot. Which was really not the fucking point right now, and he really needed to not think about it.

Bones really wasn’t helping, staring at him all wide-eyed and flustered, covering his mouth with his hand and muffling his response- it was pretty clear he was replying on autopilot, voice a bit stilted. “Not mine. Jo’s. I was supposed to watch her this week since they're. Yeah. Um, I was just gonna leave it for now, see if you could help me track her down after we ate, figured she’d be holed up somewhere like cats always do when they get out, thought maybe you could help me borrow a non-medical grade tricorder and figure out how to use the damn thing, just... didn’t want to think about not finding her yet, having to tell Jo I lost Puppy.”

Right, he was on the right track, then. Just pretend it didn’t happen. Probably have to find a way to get out of drinking with Bones for the next little while, but he could manage that in the name of keeping his stupid mouth shut. And it definitely was not the right time to tease Bones about calling standard tricorders ‘non medical grade’, he’d have to bring that up again later, and he was definitely panicking a bit now, oops. “Puppy?” His voice did _not_ just crack, damn it.

Bones lowered his hand, but started trying very obviously not to fidget while he talked. He wasn’t doing a very good job, moving from twisting his hands together to pulling at the hem of his shirt to giving up and just folding his arms behind his back like he was at parade rest. “Yeah, um. Jo waned a dog, see, a boy dog. ‘Cept turns out Clay is allergic, so Joss got her a cat. A girl cat. So Jo named her Mr. Not A Puppy.”

Jim couldn’t help laughing. A few stunned seconds later, Bones joined in, and if he was a bit more hysterical sounding, Jim sure as fuck wasn’t going to call him on it.

A few minutes later, both of them managed to quit cracking each other up all over again every time they looked at each other and started catching their breath. Bones joined him where he’d given up and sat down about halfway through, then reached over to start idly scritching Puppy’s cheek, smile slowly fading. “We should probably talk about that, huh.”

“...We don’t have to, really.” He kept himself carefully relaxed. Either Bones was about to apologize, which would really suck, or Bones was about to call him on returning it like that, which was more along the lines of damn near catastrophic.

“I think we do.” Bones pulled one of his legs halfway up to his chest and rested his arm on his knee, a sort of forced looseness that betrayed it as the defensive gesture it was. That stung a bit and pushed him more towards the second option.

Jim focused his gaze on Puppy, but his full attention was on Bones, 100%. “Okay.”

 

* * *

 

Maybe Leonard McCoy was, in fact, a damned fool.

There was no other explanation for loosing his head like that.

He knew why, of course, medically speaking. Toss it into layman’s terms and it was simple enough- stress and stress and more stress followed by the whiplash of the good fortune of Jim being a lying little snot and still being here for him and then something like euphoria at finding Puppy safe and sound with aforementioned lying little snot had tipped his higher brain function over the edge for a moment, just long enough to do something real damned stupid, like kiss his best friend.

He was pretty damn sure Jim would rather just skip right over this, given his less than excited reaction to the suggestion of talking about it, but he’d never forgive himself for not laying all his cards on the table with this opportunity having presented itself on a silver platter. And yeah, he didn’t really have to ‘fess up, but he’d made a vow to himself to communicate better after... After. In all of his relationships, no matter what type of relationship it was. And this would keep shit from going sideways later on. Hopefully.

Or it could just run Jim off for good.

He gave a soft exhale, not quite harsh enough to be a sigh, but different enough for him to catch Jim sneak a glance at him when he heard it. “I’m not going to apologize for it.”

He looked down at the floor, not even wanting to risk a peripheral view of Jim for the rest of this. “I can’t think of anything else that’ll shake me up that bad again, but it might happen again, and I am sorry for that. ‘S fine by me if you want to cool it for a while, part ways for a bit. Or for good.” _Please not for good_. “Don’t think these feelings of mine are gonna fade any time soon, but you don’t need to worry about ‘em. I know you’re not...” He made a loose gesture with his hand, the general ‘you know what I mean’ that was perfect for things people knew were damned embarrassing to say for their truth. “Anyway, that’s all, I guess. Just figured I should... Might make things easier if you knew.” Or not. He’d see in a few minutes.

“Bones.” Jim’s voice carried a soft surety and a bit of awe, enough for him to steel his nerves, brace them with his curiosity and look up. He started a bit when Jim’s expression matched, eyes full of wonder, and he didn’t have time to really question it before Jim leaned in and brushed their lips together, a much more chaste kiss than the one he’d stolen earlier.

“Jim, what the fuck?”

Dopey smile widening, Jim kissed his cheek too before settling back and looking at him with the face usually reserved for holos of newly charted space. “Me too.”

He short-circuited. “...What?”

“So... Breakfast date?”

“... _What_?”

Jim dumped Puppy in his lap and bounded to his feet, halfway to the door before he started in again. “Breakfast date, Bones. You, me, the coffee shop on the quad that we both hate? Let’s go!” He popped his head back into the room from the hallway. “That’ll be good, right? Mr. Southern Charm, you’ve always pegged me as the type for, like, _date_ dates and not just hanging out watching holos and calling it good. ...I mean, if I’m wrong, there is a bed just right in there...” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and laughed.

Leonard unfroze himself and shifted Puppy to the floor, smiling so wide he thought his face might split straight in two. Jim was using his ‘I seriously can’t afford to screw this up but I can see a thousand ways to do that and maybe half of one to not’ voice, taking this seriously. This was a hell of a lot more than he’d hoped for, so he was just fine letting Jim go on and think that for a bit in the name of neither of them overthinking this too much. “Nah, you’ve got it right. Like hell am I putting out on the first date.”

He laughed at Jim’s sudden feigned horror. “Not even afterwards?”

“Nope, not even after. Not even for you, Jimmy boy.” He settled a hand on the small of Jim’s back as he joined him, stealing another chaste kiss, only half to tease.

Jim saw through it pretty fast. “Bones. Are you seriously trying to sneak in a check-up right _now_?”

He continued gently palpating around his spine. “Don’t think I forgot that little whimper from earlier, kid. Don’t let me check you over and you’ll be waiting ‘til the _fifth_ date- and if you think I’m gonna just ignore a potential back injury just to take my boyfriend out faster, you have another thing coming.” And wasn’t that just something? Less than five minutes from panicking about losing his best friend to calling the same guy something like that. Maybe miracles were real after all. “Now _hold still_.”

Jim took a second to reboot after that certain word- it was easy enough to feel him tense up that same way he just had with his hand still on him- and started for the stairwell. He let him force a little distance; if it was something serious he’d have worked it out by now. “Bones! It was not a _whimper_ , and I’m fine, just a few scratches! Puppy was on my back when you called, and I sat up without moving her, no big deal!”

His eyes narrowed. “You disinfected it, right?”

“Uh. Soap counts, right? I showered.” He eased open the door to the stairwell like he had some harebrained idea about fast movements increasing his ire.

Advancing at the admission probably didn’t help his case on that count. “Damn it Jim, cats have fucking petri dishes instead of mouths and they coat their claws in bacteria _on purpose_ to cause infection in the wounds! Like hell you can just rinse it out, and don’t you try to tell me you really scrubbed it good!”

Jim bolted down the stairs.

He snarled as he gave chase. “Damn it, Jim, I’m a Doctor, not a damn nursemaid! I shouldn’t have to force you to take care of your fool self! Slow down, damn it!”

If he started laughing as he pursued his friend turned... boyfriend? Lover? Really, what were they going to call what they were now? Around the green no one saw, and if he ended up kissing the daylights out of his patient before dragging him off to be treated, well, no one would ever claim to have seen that, either, if he had his way. And if a holo ended up on his desk on the Enterprise a few years later thanks to a certain head nurse who had caught them at it back in the day, on _the_ day, one Leonard H McCoy standing between the legs of one James T Kirk, hand on a dermal regenerator on the biobed next to Jim’s thigh as he braced himself on the delicate piece of equipment to lean in for another lingering kiss, no one damn well ever overheard him thanking her for it either.

**Author's Note:**

> If you think that head nurse isn't Chapel you've lost your mind, and you can bet your ass Uhura got the full story from her after she pried the full story out of him, and it spread from there so Leonard was embarassed as all hell and Jim was equally as smug for the next few weeks when the crew couldn't help whispering about it every time they saw them together.
> 
> Straight from the challenge post-
> 
> The Star: Upright, it can represent hope, spirituality, renewal, inspiration, serenity. Reversed, it can represent lack of faith, despair, discouragement. 
> 
> I took both presentations of course, go big or go home, right? A lack of faith in their own standing with each other, despair from losing time with Jo, not quite despair but feeling a bit like the ground dropped out from under him for Jim when he chose to spend the break alone rather than risk getting in Bones' way, with a pretty abrupt shift to Leonard seeking renewal in Jim's presence, followed by hope for both of them, Len suddenly maybe kind of believing in miracles just a little bit but don't you DARE accuse him of that to his face, and hints at a very permanent type of serenity together in the long run.
> 
> This is the first fic I've written in something like eight years so I hope I did it justice lol


End file.
